Ben Affleck may not be able to win Best Director at the Oscars as he has now done at both the Critics' Choice Awards and Golden Globe Awards, but you better believe with Argo also winning Best Picture at both awards shows we now have something to talk about when it comes to the front-runners for Best Picture at the Oscars.

Granted, both the Golden Globes and Critics' Choice Awards are chosen by critics, but there is some measure of trickle effect when it comes to these things and two big precursor awards while the Academy is still voting and members are attending these shows does not go unnoticed.

Argo took home Best Picture (Drama) and Les Miserables ended up taking home three Globes including Best Picture (Comedy/Musical), Best Actor (Comedy/Musical) for Hugh Jackman and Best Supporting Actress to Anne Hathaway.

Les Miserables chances at the Oscars have been murky. The film managed a solid eight Oscar nominations, tying Silver Linings Playbook, which went home with one win tonight for Jennifer Lawrence for Best Actress (Comedy/Musical) and one of the night's better speeches. Following the Oscar noms it looked like the conversation would simply be leading nomination getter Lincoln versus Life of Pi and the Harvey Weinstein machine pushing Silver Linings Playbook. However, tonight's awards and last Thursday's Critics' Choice Awards show this is a race that's wide open.

Curious thing for Argo supporters will be the fact that only three films have ever won Best Picture without a Best Director nomination and the last time was Driving Miss Daisy in 1990. Before that you have to go back to the very first Oscar awards and Wings and then 1932 with Grand Hotel. The stats aren't in Argo's favor, but boy these precursor awards tell a different story.

Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln) did the inevitable and took home Best Actor (Drama) and Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) won for Best Actress (Drama), which was a win that actually surprised me. Not because I thought Chastain was bad, I thought she was great, but because I didn't think the Hollywood Foreign Press would go for something so ambiguous. I like being proved wrong in this case.

While Supporting Actress was a no-brainer with Anne Hathaway, Supporting Actor wasn't in the same boat as anyone could have won. Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln) seemed like the obvious favorite, but hardly a sure thing. Well, sure enough, Christoph Waltz won for Django Unchained in a bit of a surprise and the movie followed that win up with a win for Quentin Tarantino for Best Screenplay.

I can't say I was surprised to see Brave win for Best Animated Feature as much as it simply shouldn't have won, but I was surprised to see Amour take Best Foreign Language as I thought for sure the HFPA would go with the lighter feature in The Intouchables.

As far as the show was concerned, I thought Tina Fey and Amy Poehler did a great job, and while I can understand why shows like the Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards decide to go with the TV awards first, I don't understand why they let them babble on and on and on so that by the time you get to the end of the show the movie winners are being rushed off the stage. If you are keeping the movie awards until the end it must be because you know that's what people came to see and yet you are rushing them off the stage while other winners won't shut up? I just don't get it.

Overall, it was a solid night and tomorrow I will be updating my Oscar vs. Golden Globe Awards article with the 2013 edition so we can take a look and see just what kind of information we can gain from tonight, if any.

Otherwise, I have included all of the nominees below and highlighted the night's winners in bold red text.

MOTION PICTURE NOMINEES

BEST PICTURE (DRAMA)

Argo

Django Unchained

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Zero Dark Thirty

BEST PICTURE (COMEDY/MUSICAL)

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Les Miserables

Moonrise Kingdom

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Silver Linings Playbook

BEST ACTOR (DRAMA)

Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Richard Gere, Arbitrage

John Hawkes, The Sessions

Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

Denzel Washington, Flight

BEST ACTRESS (DRAMA)

Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty

Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone

Helen Mirren, Hitchcock

Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea

BEST ACTOR (COMEDY/MUSICAL)

Jack Black, Bernie

Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook

Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables

Ewan McGregor, Salman Fishing in the Yemen

Bill Murray, Hyde Park on Hudson

BEST ACTRESS (COMEDY/MUSICAL)

Emily Blunt, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Judi Dench, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Maggie Smith, Quartet

Meryl Streep, Hope Springs

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Alan Arkin, Argo

Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained

Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams, The Master

Sally Field, Lincoln

Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Helen Hunt, The Sessions

Nicole Kidman, The Paperboy

DIRECTOR

Ben Affleck, Argo

Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty

Ang Lee, Life of Pi

Steven Spielberg, Lincoln

Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained

ANIMATED FILM

Brave

Frankenweenie

Hotel

Rise of the Guardians

Wreck-It Ralph

SCREENPLAY

Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty

Tony Kushner, Lincoln

David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook

Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained

Chris Terrio, Argo

FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM

Amour

A Royal Affiar

The Intouchables

Kon Tiki

Rust and Bone

ORIGINAL SCORE

Life of Pi

Argo

Anna Karenina

Cloud Atlas

Lincoln

ORIGINAL SONG

"For You" from Act of Valor

"Not Running Anymore" from Stand Up Guys

"Safe and Sound" from The Hunger Games

"Skyfall" from Skyfall

"Suddenly" from Les Miserables

Cecil B. deMille Award

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Man, if Affleck got nominated for Best Director at the Oscar's then this race would really be on.

Although, the lack of Lincoln love at all means maybe it isn't quite locked up? The critics have great taste, they need more critics in the Academy Award voting!

Jack

Brad, who's winning Supporting Actor? I personally don't think Waltz will win again, though his Globe victory was in fact a pleasant surprise, even though I was pulling for Hoffman.

It's between Hoffman vs. Jones vs. DeNiro. Jones seemed like a frontrunner, but has won no support or momentum. If Playbook emerges as a favorite, DeNiro could win, but I don't see Day-Lewis and DeNiro both winning their 3rd Oscars. Hoffman has appeared at every guild and won critics. Or Arkin could pull an upset like he did with Little Miss Sunshine, if Argo wins Picture.

I respect Day-Lewis, but his speeches have been boring. Could you honestly imagine Phoenix winning, how his speech may go.

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/ Brad Brevet

Good question on Supporting Actor, it's a coin toss at the moment and the coin has three sides, though I feel Jones has slipped and we're looking at Hoffman vs. De Niro at this point, and maybe Waltz in third.

http://timeforafilm.com Alex Thomas

Oh no, but I have money on Jones! ;)

I think it's wide open, if Hoffman or Jones had won the Globes I'd be picking them, as it was neither did so who knows.

Jack

What about original screenplay? QT vs Haneke it seems

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/profile/Jaffas85/ Jaffas85

Argo has to be the favourite to win for Best Picture at the Oscars. With all branches (especially the actors branch) being able to vote surely it has to be the favourite.

I don't think that the majority of Academy members would hesitate before voting for 'Argo' for 'best picture' just because it didn't get a Director nomination. It seems a bit silly to think that potential voters could be thinking, "Oh, Argo has been doing so well and I'd love to vote for it but propriety dictates that I surely musn't even consider it because there was no directing nomination...".

OYID

Thing is, most people don't split the vote (in any sort of election), and a certain movie sweeping the awards makes for a better story.

Bill

Yes Argo could win, but here's the stat that's bothering me. If Argo wins the only other award it might get is best editing. So our best picture winner could maybe only win ONE Oscar...?!?

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/profile/Ben/ Ben

That is a good point. However at this point I could see it getting the adapted screenplay win. But it is hard to see a best picture winner only getting one win.

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/profile/kash/ kash

I predict Lincoln will take the Oscar. Argo is also an obvious favorite now. still sad that no love was shown for Dark Knight Rises or Looper. But the real winners of tonight's Globes show was the impeccable duo of Fey and Poehler. Now THAT's what you call GOLDEN.

Colin

Brad, do you think you'll do a write up on Jodie Foster's speech? That had to have been the highlight of the night.

It was nice to see Argo win over Lincoln even though I did hate that Les Mis won over Silver Linings Playbook. I also loved seeing both QT and Christoph Waltz get awards. I wasn't really a fan of Jessica Chastain's performance, I love her in other movies, but her acting in this was pretty simple and didn't really have anything special about it. It was also nice to see Jennifer Lawrence get an award too.

beam

that show was ridiculous .Steven Spielberg, Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones deserve to be winner for Lincoln . It was a sarcasm to academy members ? really ? did member of golden glob see Lincoln? this is a great movie .(only movie I can prefer than it is life of Pi) Lincoln should (and will)take the Oscar. Steven Spielberg's movie deserve to Oscar for many category specially for actor , supporting actress and actor ,director , best picture. and I 'm surprised Frankenweenie didn't win golden globe?

Pete Blair

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chriscarmichael

Life of Pi was one of the WORST films of the year. Lincoln was good but extremely overrated and undeserving. It was good but not a fun rewatchable film. Django Unchained is the best film in at least 3 years. it deserves to win everything it is nominated for and more.

Desmond Stewart

Even though Lincoln didn't perform well here.. and hasn't really fired in the pre-Oscar awards so far, I think it is still favourite for the top gong. Looking at the Director noms, I think Spielberg has got it wrapped up and with DDL I think it will have solid momentum for the best picture.

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/profile/navaneethks/ navaneethks

Affleck seems genuinely surprised when he won director and picture at critics choice and golden globes.

Lincoln in my opinion is just a little overrated. Don't get me Wong, it still a top 10 of the year. But mostly the bottom 5 of the top 10 for most people including me. If it wasn't for the Oscar voters' different taste, I would have gone with a different movie

Lets see who the BAFTA awards for best film this year. That should give us a better picture. Last 5 winners of best film at BAFTA have been the exact same as the last 5 best picture at the oscars.

Jason Zamora

The only "REAL" surprise here was Jessica Chastain winning best actress drama. Other than that, the GLOBE has just proved itself pretty useless as Oscar precursor. If Brad Pitt had directed the Twilight Saga, it would have been the Best Picture of the Year, and oh yeah, Brad is the best director, too.

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/profile/Ian/ Ian

It's amazing to think that two years after the embarrassment of The Tourist getting three nominations the Globes would offer better recognition of quality than the Oscars. But that's what will happen this year, in my opinion. I think Argo is a better film than Lincoln (which is no War Horse, but it has a rough first and last ten minutes), and I think Django is the best film of the last two years. So it was nice to see them get some recognition that the Academy won't continue.

Does anyone remember the 2011 awards season? If two month period taught us anything, it's that awards voted on by critics mean absolutely dick to the Academy. They're going to vote for who they're going to vote for. Once the guilds with actual Academy representation (PGAs, WGAs, DGA) start voting, then we'll have a notion of what direction the race is going. And I still say Lincoln and Silver Linings are in the lead. But with Russell not nominated by the DGA, the most reliable predictor of Best Picture lately won't really tell us a whole lot. If Lincoln sweeps the PGAs, WGAs, and DGA, it's the frontrunner. Argo would have to win at least one of either the PGA or the DGA for me to think it had a chance at Best Picture. And no matter what happens, I still think Silver Linings will be lurking right up until the end.

As far as the other races...the SAGs will tell us a lot. Best Actress looks like a showdown once again, but I expect Chastain to win if for no other reason than that she's older and has paid more of her dues than Lawrence. I thought Field could mount a challenge to Hathaway, but Lincoln may not be the sweeping monster that it looked like. I'll still consider the door open for an upset in case the guilds turn dramatically towards Lincoln, but if Hathaway wins the SAG, it's over. Supporting Actor is all kinds of open though. Waltz won't win, but I still think Hoffman is the strongest challenger to Jones. The actors clearly respect The Master, and this is its only winnable category. Jones is probably still the frontrunner by default, but whoever takes the SAG pulls ahead. At this point, I actually think you could make a case for each of the five, with Waltz ironically being the weakest. Despite his win last night, not being up for the SAG pretty much kills his chances, though stranger things have happened.

The WGAs will help sort out screenplay...adapted is a three way virtual tie at this point and I could easily see Silver Linings, Lincoln, or Argo taking it. Original is probably still Boal's, though Haneke could also take it (I don't recall if he's nominated by the WGA). Tarantino isn't winning.

As far as the show overall, I thought Fey and Poehler did a great job, though they disappeared for a while in the middle. I agree that all the playing off at the end got annoying...Daniel Day-Lewis is probably the greatest actor living, you don't play him off. You just don't. But they're too desperate to fit a time slot, even though it's not like they're overrunning anything major...late local news? Come on. It's not like it was pushing an extra half hour...if they'd just let everyone have their piece it probably would have only gone about ten minutes over. Tacky.

The most beautiful woman of the night for me was Kristin Wiig. She showed an awful lot of skin, but she's just absolutely gorgeous.

Jake17

Wasn't Wiig beautiful? And she and Ferrel were hilarious, which always helps.

Newbourne

It's ridiculous that Eric Stonestreet has to compete with Ed Harris and Sofia Vergara has to compete with Maggie Smith. Why don't they separate those categories? It's freaking odd they have three categories mushed together like that.